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French government subsidies help the film industry prosper in France. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney reports
"The class" wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The French docudrama starring a cast of non-professional actors features the rough and tumble of school life in a tough multi-cultural section of Paris. It's the first French film to win the festival's most prestigious prize in more than 20 years, another badge of pride for the country's resurgent cinema.
This story, this woman, who is still alive by her voice, her songs， I mean, she wrote LA VIE EN ROSE.
Earlier this year, Marion Cotillard's portrayal of iconic French singer, Edith Piaf, in La Vie En Rose, won her an Oscar, the first for a French actress since Juliette Binoche in the English Patient 12 years ago.
The French have always taken film-making seriously. After all, it was in Paris that the first cinematograph was demonstrated in 1895. Louis Lumière screened his single reels of film clips to patrons of the Grand Café in Paris, not long after singing clubs were dotted in the country.
But French filmmakers really made their mark in the late 50s and early 60s with the New Wave movement. Among those pioneers of the Jean Rose were such great François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. They provided inspiration for a younger generation of American directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg.
Today, France is the second largest exporter of films in the world after the US. The health of the country's cinema is largely due to the French state, which protects and promotes the industry. Movies made in France are heavily subsidized by the country.
It's important every country to have its own cinema, to be able to, to, to see images, to export its images, to see also, for them and probably for the others, the characters, what is going on in the society. I think movies are in a certain way, the private life of a country. So it's important the private life to be known outside.
France also places its quota limits on the import of foreign films. Still, subsidies and quotas can't keep Hollywood out of France. US movies took almost 50% of French box office receipts through last year. But there is a difference. Truffaut once said he preferred the reflection of life to life itself. And French movies have always been thought provoking rather than action packed. So, no danger at Cannes of confusing the French production Class with the Hollywood blockbuster Indiana Jones.
Fionnuala Sweeney, CNN, Paris.
